The Northern Mile Brief: week of 7 October 2026

Fuel, border and market shifts for carriers in Canada and the US.

Diesel averaged 260.5¢ a litre across Canada this week, per the NRCan survey printed 6 October 2026.

Across the ten index provinces the cheapest was Alberta at 235.4¢ and the dearest Quebec at 291.2¢, a 55.8¢ spread for the same product in the same country.

Where fuel sits

At or above the national average: Quebec 291.2¢, Newfoundland and Labrador 272.2¢, New Brunswick 269.3¢, British Columbia 268.8¢, Nova Scotia 266.8¢.

Below it: Prince Edward Island 254.9¢, Ontario 252.3¢, Saskatchewan 247.7¢, Manitoba 246.0¢, Alberta 235.4¢.

Surveyed but outside the index: Northwest Territories 223.8¢, Yukon 269.9¢.

The border

We tracked 9 crossings this week.

Carrying delays: Peace Bridge at 13 minutes, Queenston-Lewiston Bridge at 7 minutes, Pacific Highway Crossing at 5 minutes.

Clear: Ambassador Bridge, Blue Water Bridge, Lacolle Border Crossing, Coutts-Sweetgrass, Emerson-Pembina, Thousand Islands Bridge.

The dollar

The loonie closed at 1.4226 against the US dollar on 6 October 2026, down 0.2 per cent.

Crude is priced in US dollars, so a soft loonie feeds into what refiners pay to bring it in. It also changes what fuel costs you on the US side of a cross-border run.